Welcome back to my November-long examination of my long-lost (25 years ago!) attempt at getting a “real” book published, albeit one that was a cartoon book. It was the tale of my two cats, Stan and Ollie, and as I explained in Part One (click here to read it), it was first called Fuzzheads and then the much more literary Tails of Two Kitties. I don’t know why it’s much more literary, it just is, Mr. Dickens, so f-off. But the real reason is because a different version (with “Tales” instead of “Tails”) was the sub-title for IB #4, and it just kinda stuck in my head.
This is Chapter One of that book, an eight-page story chronicling how I met Stan and Ollie, after the untimely demise of my first car, Keaton, who was an inbred barn cat given to me by a co-worker, and quite frankly, a bit of a psycho (the cat, not the co-worker … although, I’ve heard stories …). This was a totally original new story, not part of my first major exploitation—um, exploration, yeah that’s better—of the vivid personalities and non-stop zaniness of my two roommates.
My very first comic book page, “Cats,” from Innocent Bystander #1, and the front and back covers from issue #4 featuring the original “Tales of 2 Kitties.”
Using my cats as fodder for my comic books was something that started in the very beginning; in fact, the first-ever comics page I wrote and drew was titled simply “Cats” and featured Stan and Ollie. That one-page story appeared in Innocent Bystander #1 (1995), and I did subsequent S&O one-pagers in IB #2. While I didn’t get very many letters or emails in those days, one request did recur: MORE CAT STUFF!, sometimes scrawled in purple crayon with disturbing drawings (okay, I made that part up; sometimes it was red crayon). So after the success of my third issue, which was devoted to the Marx Brothers, I decided my second “themed” issue would be wrapped around Stan and Ollie. One local Pittsburgh comics store sold over 60 copies of that issue, based solely on the poster they hung on their front door. They barely sold more X-Men comics at the time. I thought maybe I had lightning in a bottle, but it turned out I just had a bit of a tempest in a litter box. Still, “The Boys”—as I sometimes called them—were seemingly meant for my comic pages.
Anyway, here’s Chapter One of Tails of Two Kitties, “This Is How We Met.” Oh, and stay tuned for some photos of the real Stan and Ollie, down below.
Stan (left) and Ollie when they first came home in 1985; and more formal portraits of the two later in life.
Next time: Chapter Four features the pure, unadulterated horror—oh, the horror!—of “The Box.”
Click here to read all the other parts of “My Life in Comics.”
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